


Let the Rumors Begin!

by rhodrymavelyne



Series: A Hopeless Situation [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2015-12-29
Packaged: 2018-05-10 06:12:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5573827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhodrymavelyne/pseuds/rhodrymavelyne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scott is laboring under a misconception about his ex, Buffy Summers. Unfortunately, under the questioning of Holden Webster, it gets out of hand. Especially when Harmony and the ex-Cordettes walk by.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let the Rumors Begin!

**Author's Note:**

> This is a response to a challenge, which Thrawn posed me. It came out a little different than what he asked, for which I hope he forgives me. (apologetic bow) This story takes place during the third season of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', between 'Homecoming' and 'Lovers' Walk'. It may play havoc with the continuity, eventually, but I'm trying to respect it, somewhat. (rueful grin) Sandy Cooper is a character who appeared in 'Doppelgangland', the girl whom Vampire Willow bit at the Bronze. I made up her last name, since I couldn't find out what it actually was. The same is true of Nancy Eager, whom appeared in both 'The Wish' and 'Earshot'. If anyone knows their actual last names, please tell me. I'll change them. No, it's not also Chapter 2. I'm trying to post Chapter 2 right now, but it refuses to let me label it as Chapter 2. I don't know how to remove the Chapter 2 label, without deleting this fic. If anyone does know, please tell me?

“Hey, Scott!” There was smiling. Holden Webster was smiling at him. While he was trying to chat up Sandy Cooper. Hadn’t the guy ever heard of the concept of timing?

“Hey, Holden,” Scott Hope said, glancing at him out of the corner of his eye. Sandy was starting to look away, her attention drifting towards the lockers. He’d have to hurry, if he wanted to recapture her interest. “Did you want something?”

Hopefully, Holden would get to the point. Quickly. And leave.

Holden smiled, in an ingratiating way. That smile meant Holden Webster knew something you’d better figure out, before it came back to bite you in the ass. God help the world, when the guy started college psychology. “I need to talk you, man.” The emphasis he put on “man” was a bit threatening. 

Scott was beginning to get nervous. Sandy was beginning to look bored. She was going to walk away, any minute now, if he didn’t do something. However, he didn’t dare ignore Holden Webster. His words had a way of coming back to haunt you, making you wish you’d listened to him more carefully. 

Like the first time he’d approached Scott in the hallway. Holden Webster hadn’t even been looking at Scott. He’d been watching Debbi and Pete stroll away, in the hallway, arm and arm. As usually, they were being couple-ly to the point of ignoring everyone, including Scott.

“He’s going to kill her one day,” Holden had said. Matter of a factly, as if he’d just mentioned there were doughnuts in the gym. “And she’s going to let him.”

“What are you talking about?” Scott had demanded. “Those two are so lovey dovey, it’s sickening!” 

“Ask Debbi about her bruises, sometime,” Holden said, in the same matter of a fact matter. “Ask Pete about them, too.” He’d strolled away, without any further explanation. 

Scott had thought Holden was full of crap. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been. One morning, Debbi and Pete’s bodies had been found at the school. Theories had ranged from too many estrogen pills to the influence of iced mochas. Unfortunately, there was one detail, which everyone agreed upon. Pete had killed Debbi. He’d been beating up on her, for years. Much as he wanted to deny it all, say it was all bullshit, Scott kept remembering little things. Debbi’s constant bruises. The dangerous gleam Pete got in his eye, whenever Debbi even entered into the personal space of someone else. It had been the same gleam, which had been in his eye, when Pete threw rocks at birds, or squirrels. Sometimes, his aim had been way too accurate. All of these little things took on a sinister significance, paired up with Debbi's death. He should have known, but he’d been clueless. Holden Webster had picked it up, right from the bat.

Scott hated him, more than a little for that. 

The second incident gave him yet another reason to hate Holden Webster. At the same time, it made Scott respect his oracular powers of psychology. 

It hadn’t been long after Debbi and Pete died. Thankfully, he had Buffy to help him through all this. He’d just said goodbye to her in the hallway. She’d been walking away. Sunlight entered the window, bringing out the gold in her hair, as a few stray locks escaped from her barrettes. Scott's breath caught in his throat at the sight. 

He was a very, very lucky man.

“It won’t last.” Holden Webster, damn him, was standing at his side. Making his prediction in the same, dry, matter of a fact voice, with which he’d condemned Debbi and Pete to death and dysfunction. “You and her.”

“Meaning she’s too good for me?” Scott had asked. The question had come out too belligerent and challenging. It showed uncertainty. It showed weakness. 

“Meaning she’s got secrets she’s never going to share with you,” Holden said, looking straight at him, as if he could see the weakness, squirming around in Scott’s soul. “Eventually, it’ll be too much for you.” His lower lip had curled. Was it amusement? Or disdain? “You’ll break up with her.”

“Right!” Scott had laughed in Holden’s face. “After all the trouble I went to, trying to get her attention in the first place! I don’t think so!”

Holden had said nothing. He’d simply smiled and walked off. 

Holden had been right about that, too, damn him. Buffy had had secrets, things she’d hidden from him. She was always distracted, always disappearing. Whenever he tried to ask her what was wrong, she’d smile, and say it was nothing. It was clearly was not. It got to the point, where Scott couldn’t bear it anymore. He’d broken up with her, right before homecoming. Yeah, dick move, but considering what she was hiding? What choice had he had?

Twice, Holden Webster had tried to warn him. Twice, Scott Hope had ignored him. He couldn’t afford to ignore this oracular jerk, again.

Scott did his best to make the best of a bad situation. He smiled his most long suffering smile at Sandy. “I think I’d better talk to this guy. I’ll try to make it quick.” He said all this in an undertone, as if it were private, for Sandy’s ears only, but he made sure Holden could hear.

“Sure,” Sandy said. She smiled back at him, but it was an absent sort of smile. If Scott hadn’t known better, he would have thought she was waiting for some other guy. Except as far he knew, Sandy Cooper had shown no interest in any other boys. Had he missed something?

“All right, Holden,” Scott said. He turned and walked a few paces away, out of earshot of Sandy, or anyone else. “What did you want to talk about?”

“Buffy,” Holden said, staring at him intently. “Was I right? Did you break up with her?” 

The anger, which had been simmering in Scott Hope, ever since Pete and Debbi had died, boiled over.

“Yes! Yes, you were right!” Scott snarled, as he turned on Holden. “Are you happy? You knew, all this time, while I was an idiot! A clueless idiot!”

His voice must have carried, because Sandy was now looking at him. Nancy Eager had joined her. Her mouth was turned down in its usual sour expression, but there was an avid gleam in her eyes. Wonderful. He was getting an audience. 

Holden was now staring at him in an utterly non-plussed fashion. “What?”

“Oh, don’t play dumb, now!” Scott growled, lowering his voice. “You knew about Debbi and Pete, all along. You also knew about Buffy. Go ahead and gloat!”

“I’m not sure, if I should, yet,” Holden said. He was still staring at him. “What exactly did I know about Buffy?”

“Why are you pretending you didn’t know?” Scott said, letting his voice rise. What was the point in keeping it down? “You knew all along Buffy was gay!”

The words carried, with perfect clarity down the hall. At that exact moment, Harmony and her Barbie brigade turned the corner. All five girls stared at him. Harmony’s painted mouth was a perfect ‘O’ of horror, but it was turning down. Into a vicious smile of delight. 

After all, Harmony Kendall had just walked into a tender slice of high grade gossip, which would tear down someone from their lofty spot of social pre-eminence. Or grind them even deeper into the dirt. Buffy would fall in the latter category.

Scott felt a little bit guilty at what he knew he’d just inflicted upon his ex. 

Holden, in the meantime, was staring at him. “Here I was going to ask, if she was available, since you no longer seemed to be dating her,” he said. His head cocked slightly, as he watched Harmony grin and smirk with her cohorts. “I guess this means she isn’t?”

“Of course she isn’t!” The sound of Sandy’s voice made both Holden and Scott jump. What with the entrance of Harmony and her minions, they hadn’t noticed her approaching. She was staring at the two boys with wide, solemn eyes. “So it’s true? She and Buffy are a couple?”

Scott breathed a sigh of relieved embarrassment. Sandy had noticed what was going on between Buffy and Faith. At least, he didn’t have to explain why he was no longer with Buffy. 

“Yes, it’s true,” he said. Swallowing his pride, he admitted, “I almost caught them at it in the library.”

“The library?” Holden’s eyebrows raised. His lips twitched, trying to resist smirking. It didn’t help that Harmony and her girls were almost at his side. None of them bothered to hide their smirks. They were shared smirks, rather than the usual smirks at your expense. It was frightening, how contagious they were. “Kinky!” 

“Who was at it in the library with Buffy?” Harmony demanded. She approached Scott, Holden, and Sandy, like a queen approaching her subjects. She wasn’t as good at it as Cordelia had been. It didn’t matter. These subjects were more than willing to give up the information. 

“Faith, of course!” Scott said, a little impatiently. Wasn’t it perfectly obvious whom Buffy was gay for? “I heard them through the door, panting, grunting, and that’s as much detail as I want to go into!”

Harmony’s nose wrinkled, but Holden and the rest of the girls looked disappointed at the abrupt edit of the story. Particularly Sandy. 

“Faith?” Sandy asked. She was staring at him intently, as if every word was very important. “Are you sure it was Faith?”

“How could he be?” Harmony said. She tilted her head, as she stared, almost accusingly, at Scott. “You didn’t go in, did you?”

“No!” Scott snapped. What did Harmony think he was, the jilted lover in a bad sitcom? “Frankly, I had no desire to watch my girlfriend cheating on me with another girl!”

Harmony, Holden, Sandy, and all of Harmony’s followers looked at him, as if they knew he was lying. 

“Fine!” Scott said. “You want to know whom Buffy was with? You figure it out! Come on, Sandy!” He took Sandy’s hand, as he tried to make a Grand Exit. Hopefully, Sandy would make it with him. 

She did, although not without a little reluctance. It was clear she found this subject way too interesting. 

Wonderful. Scott’s day was getting better and better.


End file.
